Shuker Uberhorn Fretless 4 Revisited

[Bridgehouse]

A little while back, you may recall, I became the rather proud owner of a Shuker Uberhorn Fretless 4 (Serial 001)

Well, its a superb bass. It's build quality is exquisite, it looks utterly incredible, and it plays like no bass I've ever played before (even with my hamfisted attempts at fretless I know it's something special). Here it is on arrival:

Well (and it's a bit of a Jackanory this, so get a comfy chair and a coffee..) I was never really happy with the electrics side of things.

Firstly, the under-board mag Jazz pickup was single coil, and noisy - so that got swapped out for a Nordstrand.

Then, I noticed that it was running an EMG gain boost which was as noisy as anything, and ripped that out. 

Then, things went properly south. An odd noise developed from the piezo preamp, which eventually became a not so odd noise, and eventually no noise at all. 

Investigation revealed two things - the ghost acoustiphonic preamp had died, and the summing board for the ghost piezo saddles had effectively eaten itself. I tried many a re-solder and extra bit of dabbling before ripping the whole lot out in a fit of Uber-rage. It was just mightily frustrating that I had a bass which looked amazing, played so damn well, but was completely let down by an electronics package that wasn't doing it justice, and if I'm honest, was past it's best at 10 years old. 

Now, to be fair to Jon, it was top drawer stuff when built, and it's lasted really well. However, my big problem and frustration was finding a suitable replacement - the options were limited at best, and in reality pretty much nowt at all. Number one option was looking like a new ghost board and replacement preamp. Ugh. I'll be honest - I don't like the ghost board. It requires you plug any mag pickups into it and forces you to separate it all out. It's messy and it just isn't very logical. 

After some ruminating, kicking chairs and generally feeling rather miserable about the whole thing, in a fit of last ditch desperation I emailed John East and simply said "Can you do anything that might get this up and running again?"

Of course he could. In fact, he said there were options aplenty and I can pretty much have what I want. Sounded spendy - but it really wasn't. 

John East is a legend of a man. Apart from being a genius, he is polite, enthusiastic and utterly pleasurable to deal with. I'll say it now in case I forget - if you are thinking of upgrading any electronics, go to him first. He will sort you out. His kit is absolutely the best and it's just so easy to install. 

Anyway, we discussed options and I came up with my preferred configuration. John spent a bit of time ruminating, then came back with a "yep - all possible". So he built it, I paid for it, and he shipped it. It came this morning:

I decided to ditch the frankly terrible ghost summing board and soldered them all together to two wires - a hot and a ground. That gave me this:

John's stuff is just so neat and easy to install. Given how much gubbins there is in this bass now (like about twice the amount there was) it's a miraculously tidy install:

And now I have a bunch of new knobs and a lot more stacked ones than before!

So what configuration did I go for? Well..

- The Piezo goes into John's own Piezo Preamp/Mixer which allows you to set gain and sets the right impedance etc, as well as allowing you to have a piezo treble roll off to get rid of any quack. Nice.

- The output from this goes into the Uni Pre 4 - the Mag pickup and Piezo output go into the volume board and allow volume, blend, individual balancing gain for each pickup, and a bunch of other tuning options

- There rest is a standard Uni Pre 4 except for the passive tone, which is also now a piezo treble roll off when active, and I have a mute switch added.

So the knobs are now:

1. Volume/Blend

2. Passive Tone/Active Piezo Treble Roll Off

3. Mid/Mid Freq Sweep

4. Treble/Bass

and the two switches are:

1. Active/Passive

2. Mute

The real difference (apart from the quality) is the fact that both piezo and mag feed into John's preamp so no matter what the blend I can get the most out of the piezo and set mids, treble, bass, treble roll off etc. as well as have full control over the mag just the same. I also get a passive mode which means I can use it passively and run a booster pedal on a board for more oomph. 

The Nordstrand sounds like it should now. The Piezo is just so different - far more full spectrum and far far more tonal possibility - from clanky spiky almost acoustic to a proper dull thumpy double bass sound. The Nordstrand gets me mids till my eyes bleed as well as that traditional Jazz type of sound. Blend them together and it's like a Jazz with a whopping great low down thump from a double bass all in one. 

It now actually sounds like it looks. It sounds like it plays. It sounds flipping great and though I thought it sounded really rather good before despite the niggles, I had no idea it would open out like this. 

[BreadBin]

Oof, that’s properly nice 

[Sambrook]

Thanks for a good, clear description. I'm contemplating something similar in the future, and this info helps. Ta 

[Bridgehouse]

1 minute ago, Sambrook said:

Thanks for a good, clear description. I'm contemplating something similar in the future, and this info helps. Ta 

I would highly recommend John East for this type of stuff - he really knows his onions and is a pleasure to deal with. 

[bubinga5]

Got an East U Retro Deluxe in the Sei Jazz, and there is no way any other preamp would replace it. Just superb sounding electronics. 

[Owen]

I have an Uberhorn 5. It is the bomb. It has East (tweaked by the great man himself) electronics in there. They are the bomb. I have all options of 2 x J pickups and 1 x P pickup. Needless to say I only use both J pickpups wide open. Like I have for the past 30 years. When will I learn?

[ped]

Excellent, interesting read too. Really like John having worked with him before, and his stuff sounds great. Have to say I do find the stacked knobs too tall for my tastes though. 

[Bridgehouse]

Yep. Two basses with East preamps now and both are really excellent.

I don’t mind the big knobs.. I work with a load of them all day 

[kodiakblair]

Great post. If things ever go awry with my Tune Maniac I'll be having a word with John 😎 No mags to worry about, just the piezo.

[Bridgehouse]

1 hour ago, kodiakblair said:

Great post. If things ever go awry with my Tune Maniac I'll be having a word with John 😎 No mags to worry about, just the piezo.

John’s piezo Preamp/mixer is superb - treble roll off and volume - and you could use his uni pre for active eq if you needed it. All integrated and works so well together..

[Bridgehouse]

Wielded Uberhorn One in anger today.

I was slightly tempted to gig with it on Friday night, but chickened out and decided to use it at a Jam session today with some guitar buddies. 

Took the ACG as well as it’s my known staple. Had my QSC10.2 and Preamp board as setup one and used the house Trace GP12 as well. 

Interestingly, tried the Uberhorn through the GP12 first and it sounded massive - one note played and everyone in the room looked at me with that “wtf was that!!” face.. thinking it was the Trace I swapped to the QSC. Nope. Same thing. Massive sound. Deep, punchy, but lots of rich overtone harmonics all over the shop. I was a bit stunned by it to be honest as there’s so much there that it almost got a bit unwieldy. On piezo alone, I rolled back the bass and tuned the mids and then rolled on a bit of treble and kept the vol at just under half way. It was still huge but quite manageable. The GP12 gave it a thunderous sub bass whereas the QSC gave it a bit more “hifi” sparkle. Both very nice in their own way. 

For a couple of jams a guitar chum played bass and used the ACG whilst I had a drum, and I have to say, it sounded real good, but the sheer weight of presence of the Uberhorn is something I’ve just not experienced before..

Edited October 14, 2018 by Bridgehouse

[skelf]

I find John's Uni-Pre the same it sounds fantastic and has real weight and presence. However I am personally still a filter guy to such an extent I find 3 bands harder to use than the filters. Mind you I have been using them a long time way before I developed my own circuit with John.

Edited October 14, 2018 by skelf

[Bridgehouse]

3 minutes ago, skelf said:

I find John's Uni-Pre the same it sounds fantastic and has real weight and presence. However I am personally still a filter guy to such an extent I find 3 bands harder to use than the filters. Mind you I have been using them a long time way before I developed my own circuit with John.

Your uni pre sounded fantastic on Friday night at the O2 Academy in Leicester - my ACG is gig bass number 1 and I would seriously stuggle to move to something else for live use when it matters!

[LukeFRC]

31 minutes ago, skelf said:

I find John's Uni-Pre the same it sounds fantastic and has real weight and presence. However I am personally still a filter guy to such an extent I find 3 bands harder to use than the filters. Mind you I have been using them a long time way before I developed my own circuit with John.

The John East / ACG preamp transformed my streamer into one of the best basses I’ve ever played. I would happily buy anything from either Alan or John based on the quality of that preamp alone. 

[Bridgehouse]

2 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

The John East / ACG preamp transformed my streamer into one of the best basses I’ve ever played. I would happily buy anything from either Alan or John based on the quality of that preamp alone. 

Yep. I picked up a uni-pre from Alan for my ACG Finn and it transformed it. When the Shuker needed new gubbins there was only one guy to go to.. John East. Such quality and brilliant service 

[Bridgehouse]

On 06/10/2018 at 23:11, kodiakblair said:

Great post. If things ever go awry with my Tune Maniac I'll be having a word with John 😎 No mags to worry about, just the piezo.

I meant to ask - those Tune Maniacs seem pretty rare -  but I like! Seems like they’d be difficult to get hold of tho?

Edited October 14, 2018 by Bridgehouse

[LukeFRC]

1 minute ago, Bridgehouse said:

Yep. I picked up a uni-pre from Alan for my ACG Finn and it transformed it. When the Shuker needed new gubbins there was only one guy to go to.. John East. Such quality and brilliant service 

Did it originally have the filter based pre? I’ve the EQ-01 and it’s amazing in terms of tonal variation - it does however match the character of the streamer really well 

[Bridgehouse]

1 minute ago, LukeFRC said:

Did it originally have the filter based pre? I’ve the EQ-01 and it’s amazing in terms of tonal variation - it does however match the character of the streamer really well 

The ACG Finn? No, it was originally passive only. It was routed for a battery box and had one fitted so I thought “why not?”

Turns out it opened it up completely and it’s a different beast compared to when it was passive only. 

[skelf]

The filter pre-amp does use what you give it since it does not really add its self. It can boost to a degree what is present in the filter but if the pickups/bass does not provide the basic raw material then the pre-amp wont add it. It is one of the fundamental difference between the two preamps. 

[kodiakblair]

16 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

I meant to ask - those Tune Maniacs seem pretty rare -  but I like! Seems like they’d be difficult to get hold of tho?

Rare ?

   In 34 years I've only tracked down 4 owners of these extended board fretless Maniacs. 1 in Japan (to be expected).1 in Italy,another in Australia (his had a faulty neck and sadly the replacement sent was the 2 octave model). Last one was with a fella in Edinburgh,I never saw any photos he just offered to sell me his 😄 Danny from Bass Japan told me he'd not seen one for years.

I was smitten from the second I saw the review in Guitarist mag 😎

 

If you're interested there's a lad in Birkenhead was the more common but still rarer than hen's teeth 2 octave version for sale. Will I get his details ?

[Bridgehouse]

Just now, kodiakblair said:

Rare ?

   In 34 years I've only tracked down 4 owners of these extended board fretless Maniacs. 1 in Japan (to be expected).1 in Italy,another in Australia (his had a faulty neck and sadly the replacement sent was the 2 octave model). Last one was with a fella in Edinburgh,I never saw any photos he just offered to sell me his 😄 Danny from Bass Japan told me he'd not seen one for years.

I was smitten from the second I saw the review in Guitarist mag 😎

 

If you're interested there's a lad in Birkenhead was the more common but still rarer than hen's teeth 2 octave version for sale. Will I get his details ?

I need to shift my 74 Precision to get some bass funds together - but it’s just the sort of thing I’d use for gigging fretless and as an alternate to the Shuker 

[Owen]

7 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

I need to shift my 74 Precision to get some bass funds together - but it’s just the sort of thing I’d use for gigging fretless and as an alternate to the Shuker 

You have a bass which provides "sheer weight of presence of the Uberhorn is something I’ve just not experienced before.." and you want an alternative?

[Bridgehouse]

Just now, owen said:

You have a bass which provides "sheer weight of presence of the Uberhorn is something I’ve just not experienced before.." and you want an alternative?

Yeah - one thing it doesn’t do is that more trad fretless mwah with any authority. It’s actually more like a slightly mid scooped P bass on speed. 

I’d like something less distinctive I could take to the more Er, salubrious venues, and um, well, gas innit....

[Chris2112]

I'm glad it all worked out but I do find it rather unimpressive that the original electronics lasted just ten years. Bad luck, I suppose.

[Bridgehouse]

5 hours ago, Chris2112 said:

I'm glad it all worked out but I do find it rather unimpressive that the original electronics lasted just ten years. Bad luck, I suppose.

The graphtech Ghost boards do seem to have a habit of doing this - especially their “summing” boards. The actual piezo elements themselves are fine and seem to last a good while